3rd October, 2021
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s daughter, Sara Duterte-Carpo would run for president in next year’s election.
Her running mate will be Senator Christopher “Bong” Go, her father’s long-time aide, who filed his vice presidential candidacy on Saturday, accompanied by her father.
Broadcasting firm ABS-CBN confirmed the news late on Saturday, based on an interview that Duterte had with a broadcast journalist right after he announced that he was retiring from politics.
He was asked: “So is it clear, Sara-Go?”
“It is Sara-Go,” Duterte said in response.
Sara Duterte-Carpio is currently mayor of Davao, the Philippines’ third-largest city, and filed on Saturday to run for mayor again.
She has previously said she would not run for national office next year.
In the same interview witha journalsit, Duterte was asked when his daughter would file her candidacy for president, he said: “I really do not know. I do not have any idea at all”.
Asked if he had given his daughter permission to run for president, he said: “Ah, no, actually we don’t talk about politics, ever since we never talk about politics. I would say that it is for the better,” Duterte was quoted as saying.
Duterte, 76, said on Saturday he was retiring from politics, a surprise move that fuelled speculation he was clearing the way for a presidential run by his daughter.
He had been expected to run for the No. 2 job, a plan most Filipinos oppose as violating the spirit of the constitution which sets a one-term limit for the president to stop power being abused.
Political analysts were sceptical, noting that last-minute changes were still possible, as in 2015 when Duterte entered the presidential election race at the eleventh hour and won by a huge margin, and Duterte-Carpio, they said, could do the same.
Candidates have until Oct. 8 to register, but withdrawals and substitutions are allowed until Nov. 15, leaving scope for last-minute changes of heart.